Queen Noor and Julia Bacha on ‘My Neighborhood’

By

Stacy Perman

Apr 21, 2012 10:30 am ET

Queen Noor of Jordan began supporting filmmaker Julia Bacha and her production company Just Vision in 2009 after they were awarded the King Hussein Foundation Leadership Prize for the documentary “Budrus.” The film tells the story of how a group of Palestinians from Hamas and Fatah, and Israelis launched a non-violent campaign in response to the military’s building of a security fence that would cut off the village of Budrus.

On April 21, Just Vision’s latest documentary, “My Neighborhood,” will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. “My Neighborhood” is the tale of the forced eviction of Mohammed El Kurd, an eleven-year-old Palestinian from his home in East Jerusalem by Israeli settlers and the surprising friendship that evolves when Israeli Zvi Benninga and his family comes to support the Palestinian residents of the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood — their small protests soon grows to demonstrations that bring 3,000 Arabs and Israelis to the neighborhood.

Speakeasy recently caught up with Queen Noor and Julia Bacha about the film and the non-violent struggle that does not often get covered in the media. Read the interview after the jump.